[Weekend Money] Virtual Asset Exchanges Lose Growth Momentum Amid Legislative Delays and Declining Trading Volumes

Exchanges See Decline in Daily Trading Volume
"Trading Volume Only Increases During Fee Events"
"Heavy Reliance on Fee-Based Business Models"

There are growing concerns that domestic virtual asset exchanges are losing their growth momentum. This is because trading volumes have declined due to the bullish domestic stock market, and the regulatory environment prevents them from expanding into new businesses.

According to IM Securities' report, "Coinbase's Poor Earnings, What About Korean Virtual Asset Exchanges?" released on May 16, 2026, the virtual asset market is contracting as the stock market, especially semiconductor stocks, continue to perform strongly.

Compared to the beginning of the year, the KOSPI has risen by 77.9%, the Taiwan Capitalization Weighted Stock Index by 44.9%, KOSDAQ by 30.5%, the U.S. Nasdaq by 14.8%, and Japan's Nikkei by 24.6%. In contrast, the prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum have declined by 9.1% and 22.2%, respectively, during the same period.

As the virtual asset market slows, trading volumes have also shrunk. Upbit's average daily trading volume this year decreased by 44.0% compared to the second half of last year. During the same period, Bithumb's volume fell by 48.2%, and Gopax's by 70.8%. While Coinone and Korbit saw their average daily trading volumes increase by 27.8% and 214.6%, respectively, compared to the second half of last year, this was only a temporary effect caused by trading fee refund events and reward promotions. After these events ended, both Coinone and Korbit experienced a decline in trading volumes.

In this situation, major exchanges in the United States and other key countries are diversifying their business structures beyond transaction fee-based revenue models. For example, U.S.-based Coinbase is strengthening its strategy by building new revenue streams not only through the exchange model but also with stablecoins and open payment protocols for agentic commerce.

However, Korean virtual asset exchanges face difficulty in diversifying their business structures due to the regulatory environment. Institutional investment in virtual assets, spot ETFs, and stablecoins are all subject to limited regulatory approval.

The United States is quickly establishing its regulatory framework by discussing the CLARITY Act, which aims to classify the nature of virtual assets and define the responsible regulatory bodies. In contrast, Korea's legislation for the second phase of virtual asset regulation (Digital Asset Basic Act), which governs market structure and the overall industry including issuance and distribution of digital assets, has been delayed. This is because disagreements remain between the industry and the government over the equity structure of virtual asset exchanges and the issuers of stablecoins.

Yang Hyunkyung, a researcher at IM Securities, commented, "Korean virtual asset exchanges are highly dependent on fee-based revenue models. Although they have attempted to defend trading volumes through fee events, the decline in trading volume after such events end shows that this does not translate into sustainable growth momentum."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.